DOE to invest $13M in drop-in biofuels

By Staff | July 22, 2013

The U.S. DOE has announced a $13 million investment in four biofuel projects, with the goal of bringing next-generation biofuel production online faster, while driving down the cost of drop-in renewable fuels. Salt Lake City, Utah-based Ceramatic was awarded up to $3.3 million to support the development of an efficient electrochemical deoxygenation process to cost-effectively separate oxygen from bio-oil.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory will receive up to $2.1 to use a microbial electrolysis process to remove hydrogen in water found in bio-oil. The technology will reduce the corrosivity of bio-oil and improve the efficiency of converting hydrogen and biomass to biofuels.

The DOE will provide up to $4 million to the University of Oklahoma to investigate two methods to maximize the amount of renewable carbon and hydrogen that can be extracted from biomass and converted into a intermediate suitable for final upgrading into transportation fuel.

Madison, Wis.-based Virent Inc. has been awarded up to $4 million to develop an innovative separation process using its BioForming technology to convert lignocellulosic biomass into hydrocarbon fuels.